The present disclosure relates to an illumination device that emits light including laser light, and a display device that displays an image by using such an illumination device.
Typically, a projector (or a projection display device) includes an optical module as a main component, and this optical module is constituted by an illumination optical system (or an illumination device) including a light source, and a projection optical system (or a profile optical system) including light modulation elements. In the field of such projectors, recently, compact (or palm sized), lightweight portable projectors called “micro projectors” have been increasingly dispersed. Typically, such a micro projector mainly includes a light emitting diode (LED), as a light source, in an illumination device.
On the other hand, lately, there is a growing interest in lasers for new light sources in illumination devices. For instance, projectors equipped with a gas laser have been known, as projectors using laser lights of three primary colors, such as red (R), green (G), and blue (B). Examples of a projector using a laser as a light source, as described above, are proposed by Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications Nos. S55-65940 and H06-208089. By using a laser as a light source, projectors achieve a wide range of color reproduction and low power consumption.